Cultural activities on the stage, 2023

Key statistics compared to 2019 as the pre-COVID year:

• Houses of culture, theatres and music institutions organized 24,154 performances or about 3% fewer than in the year before the epidemic;
• In total, the performances were attended by around 3,930,000 visitors, while in 2019 we recorded around 4,450,000 visitors;
• The mentioned cultural institutions organized 152 festivals, i.e. 36% fewer than in 2019, which included about 4,126 performances, i.e. 10% fewer than in 2019.

Fewer stage performances than in the previous year

In total, 24,154 performances were held on the stages of houses of culture, theatres and music institutions (193 fewer than in 2022): almost a half (49%) of them were from their own production and co-production, while the rest were events carried out by guest performers or ensembles.

Most of these performances (76%) were held in houses of culture and cultural centres. 21% of them were performed in theatres and both operas, and only a little more than 3% in music institutions, i.e. at the headquarters, since these institutions mostly tour or perform elsewhere. The structure has not changed over the years. 

Only a handful of e-events

After the return of cultural events to the stage, the number of events prepared for the virtual space continues to decline. Data on the number of events prepared for the virtual space (e-events) also indicate this trend: in 2020, the first year of the epidemic, the institutions prepared 3,974 e-events, in 2021 there were 3,597 e-events, in 2022 "only" 564 and last year 485. Most of them, around 95%, were offered by houses of culture and cultural centers.

Around 3.93 million visitors 

In total, events attracted 3.93 million visitors, each on average 163.

Some cultural institutions also offer free events to its visitors. Last year, there were 7,333 such events, or around 30% of the total (22% in 2019). Most of them were offered by houses of culture.

The surveyed institutions earned about EUR 17.2 million from tickets sold (16.3 million in 2019). A ticket cost on average EUR 13: EUR 12.22 in houses of culture, EUR 11.28 in theatres and operas, and EUR 20.41 in music institutions. 

Diverse festival events 

Houses of culture, theatres and music institutions organized 152 festivals with 4,126 events. The largest number of them, 78, was music and dance festivals, 30 were theatre festivals and 15 film festivals, while the remaining 29 festivals, i.e. 42% of all festival events, were classified by cultural institutions as "other" and were described as children's or youth, literary and literary-musical, multimedia, festival of art-technology-science, festival of sound walks, comics, feminist, ethnological festivals, etc. The largest number of festivals was organized by houses of culture and cultural centres (107). 

Most institutions have arranged access for the physically impaired, while the visually or hearing impaired have not yet been taken care of to such an extent

Among cultural institutions that had their own premises for carrying out cultural activities, 56% had fully arranged access for persons with physical impairments, while 35% arranged it partially. Access for persons with visual or hearing impairments was fully or at least partially arranged in 40% of these institutions, while in the remaining 60% it was not yet arranged. In the last eight years, cultural institutions have not significantly improved access for visitors with disabilities.

Number of employees in cultural institutions sllightly lower than in 2019 

The surveyed cultural institutions had 2,537 employees and 13,044 external associates. Compared to 2019, the number of employees went down by 3% and the number of external associates by 2%.

Among external associates, the largest share were voluntary workers, unpaid workers and employees through public works and associations (26%), followed by self-employed in culture (21%), those with copyright contracts (16%), students (15%), etc. The structure has not changed much in recent years.


Tables with the latest data are available in the SiStat Database.